The Gay Thread

Quote: Shrek

Serious question here.
How the hell do gays get their accent?? Why can't they just talk normal like the rest of us??

It's not like they're from some foreign country, so I don't get it.

Here's what I'm talking about. Now this guy technically doesn't say that he's gay, but c'mon man.
He's flaming all over the damn place. Just watch the first few seconds of this strawberry video to hear his gay accent:






BTW the Youtube comments are hilarious.
One guy said "The dude in the pink hoodie makes the rest of them look straight as an arrow". 🤣🤣

I've wondered that myself. Most gay men have no 'accent', but certainly there is a clearly recognizable one for a large portion of the gay male community. I wonder why that is?

Quote: SOOPOO

Quote: Shrek

Serious question here.
How the hell do gays get their accent?? Why can't they just talk normal like the rest of us??

It's not like they're from some foreign country, so I don't get it.

Here's what I'm talking about. Now this guy technically doesn't say that he's gay, but c'mon man.
He's flaming all over the damn place. Just watch the first few seconds of this strawberry video to hear his gay accent:






BTW the Youtube comments are hilarious.
One guy said "The dude in the pink hoodie makes the rest of them look straight as an arrow". 🤣🤣

I've wondered that myself. Most gay men have no 'accent', but certainly there is a clearly recognizable one for a large portion of the gay male community. I wonder why that is?

Maybe they think they are supposed to talk and act a certain way?

Alternatively said group is known to be attention whores and it puts them at the center of attention? IIRC, EB once said the ones that cross-dress the worst thing you could do to them was not react to what they were wearing and how they were acting?

Quote: Shrek

Serious question here. How the hell do gays get their accent?? Why can't they just talk normal like the rest of us??

Linguists have attempted to isolate exactly what makes gay men's English distinct from that of other demographics since the early 20th century, typically by contrasting it with straight male speech or comparing it to female speech.

Gay speech is also widely stereotyped as resembling women's speech. However, on the basis of phonetics, Benjamin Munson and his colleagues' research has discovered that gay male speech does not simply or categorically imitate female speech.

Some linguists suggest that a California regional sound can be employed by gay men for stylistic effect, including to evoke a "fun" or "partier" persona.

In one Canadian study, listeners correctly identified gay speakers in 62% of cases. That suggests that gay men may use their speech so that they can be easily identified.



John Barrowman (born in Scotland, raised in Canada, starring in British TV shows) is openly gay, and has pioneered gay performances on TV. Maybe because he is an actor because most of the time he doesn't sound gay. John Barrowman (14 years ago) was the first time I ever saw extended male to male kissing on TV



British TV is a little more open than American TV as they actually had a gay male to male kiss two years before the first lesbian kiss on American TV in 1991.

"listeners correctly identified gay speakers in 62% of cases. That suggests that gay men may use their speech so that they can be easily identified"

I could have told you that. It's
so other Gays will know you're
Gay too.

Did this thread really just turn into conspiracy theories about gay accents?

I think straight people obsess over how people talk more than anyone else? …. I have never even heard of all of these gay linguistical studies.....

As for people changing their voice when talking to people they are sexually interested in (this happens for literally everyone)……

Quote: Gandler

Did this thread really just turn into conspiracy theories about gay accents?
…

Where is the conspiracy. Linguists
study all kinds of speech patterns.
It's a fact that if you have any kind
of Southern accent or Texas drawl
you will never get a job onscreen
in network TV. People who talk like
that are still looked at as hicks
and hillbillies even today.

Quote: Evenbob

Where is the conspiracy. Linguists
study all kinds of speech patterns.
It's a fact that if you have any kind
of Southern accent or Texas drawl
you will never get a job onscreen
in network TV. People who talk like
that are still looked at as hicks
and hillbillies even today.

Quote: Evenbob

Where is the conspiracy. Linguists
study all kinds of speech patterns.
It's a fact that if you have any kind
of Southern accent or Texas drawl
you will never get a job onscreen
in network TV. People who talk like
that are still looked at as hicks
and hillbillies even today.

You can become one of the greatest Presidents in history with a Texas Drawl.

But, in seriousness, I don’t know if that is true. I see plenty of TV shows where people fake accents (British Americans and vice-versa), I am sure some Southern accented people fake Northern accents, and I know Northern accent people fake southern accents (this is actually fairly common) for roles.

I don't really know if there is a gay accent. Most gay men I know you would never know they were gay.... I think the effeminate accent is more of a stereotype. I met somebody in college theater with a gay lisp and got super uncomfortable when gay men hit on him at parties (because as you say, people assumed he was talking that way to attract attention, and being with the threatre crowd probably did not help).
I can honestly say I have never met a gay man (in real life) who talks that way, the one example I mentioned who talked that way was not actually gay.... I think people conflate Hollywood with reality....

Quote: Pacomartin

Gay speech is also widely stereotyped as resembling women's speech.

Holy crap, you're right!! The gay accent does sound like women's speech!


Btw does anybody remember the old honey badger video?? This is the PERFECT example of the gay accent lol 😂😂

Quote: Gandler

I don't really know if there is a gay accent. Most gay men I know you would never know they were gay.... I think the effeminate accent is more of a stereotype.

You either live a very sheltered life or aren't paying attention. I have met at least 100 people in my life with a very noticeable gay accent and I live in a small Canadian redneck cow town. I know where 3 or 4 work in town and we could visit them if you were here and listen to them talk. Many accented men I met have moved or died and countless others I met while on holidays with my wife. I am not gay or go looking for the gay areas but I have inadvertently been in a gay bar a couple of times.